1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a new and improved method and structure for filling any beverage receptacle from a plurality of cups or a pitcher with beverage, and having manual start and automatic shut off of dispensing when the beverage level reaches or approaches the rim of the beverage receptacle.
2. The Prior Art
The use of a tilted open topped receptacle for filling has been well known and used since at least as early as the 1900's.
U.S. Pat. No. 763,136 has a continuous canning line wherein open top cans are filled firstly with solids and then secondly with liquid. The filled can is then tilted to spill out any excess liquid so that when the cans leave the tilting area and are returned to vertical, the cans all have an identical fill and identical head space. The cans are thereafter topped and closed.
Subsequent canning lines have been utilized wherein the open topped cans are filled while tilted. Cans are now being filled with liquids, mixtures of solids and liquids, and flowable solids while tilted. When the cans are returned to upright, even and consistant fills and head spaces are provided regardless of can size. Examples of state-of-the-art fillers of tilted cans and bottles are made by Soborn Corporation of Fairfield N.J. and a typical specific example is shown in B. C. Eisenberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,053.
W. C. Buttner et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,055,923 taught that a glass or like beverage receptacle should be placed beneath a pour spout and disposed at an angle or tilt from vertical and to the spout so that beverage discharged from the spout will hit the side of a glass at a slight angle to minimize carbonation loss and foaming.
S. D. Levings U.S. Pat. No. 2,598,665 teaches a carbonated soft drink dispenser having a cup support which will hold the cup at an angle with respect to the user and with respect to vertical, and to the dispenser so that the forward side of the cup is slightly higher than the back, serving to confine any overflow to the rear of the cup and improve the appearance of the cup of beverage after filing. The cup is canted rearwardly at an angle of approximately 10 degrees. The cup has its rear top edge below the bottom of a dispensing nozzle.
Both Buttner and Levings were assigned to Bastian Blessing Co. of Chicago.
Lawrence D. McIntosh U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,963 is also directed to beverage dispensing and teaches the concept of and structure for manual start and automatic shut off of dispensing by utilizing an electrically conductive combination actuator and beverage probe lever that engages a cup and electrically contacts and senses the beverage when it reaches or approaches the rim of the cup.
Arthur M. Reichenberger U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,553 is a further development beyond McIntosh. Reichenberger provided energization of the beverage and signal current flow through the flowing beverage stream during dispensing, through the beverage in the cup and to the combination actuation and beverage probe lever. An elongate, straight electrically conductive actuator and probe lever has a sliding angled projection to engage the beverage in various heights of cups. This particular device was never able to satisfy NSF sanitation criteria and while having been field tested and found operable, it has not been commercially successful as of this date.
D. E. Holcomb et al in co-pending U.S. Ser. No. 824,819 filed on Jan. 31, 1986, have devised an improved McIntosh type structure with a low moment combination actuator and beverage prove lever utilizing a high strength low mass tubular lever arm mounted on a di-electric journal to give improved electrical isolation. A heater element in the lever arm provides high temperature which can keep the lever arm sterile. Holcomb further shows and teaches that the use of a relatively simple tilted cup rest with a McIntosh type automatic filling control is well known.
F. Brill U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,792 has a receptacle rest with a bottom mounted stop on a horizontal support surface for stopping a variety of cups below a nozzle. Brill's stop acts directly upon the bottom of a cup.
Where we are with McIntosh, Reichenberger and Holcomb is that we have a device that will now automatically shut off with various sized cups or glasses, regardless of the size of the cup, provided the cups are of reasonable height and volume and they fit upon and in the dispenser. Specifically medicine cups and popcorn buckets are not usable, but typical beverage cups in the range of 6-16 ounces are quite acceptable. While these devices have offered measurable and economically important savings of time and increases in productivity, further opportunities and problems have been realized.
Many of the beverage and food establishments serve dispensed beverage in cups or glasses and significantly larger pitchers. For example, draft beer retailers will sell small glasses, mugs, and/or large pitchers of beer. Soft drink retailers such as pizza parlors and hamburger houses will serve small and medium and large cups and also very large pitchers of soft drinks. The cups are typically of paper and are relatively lightweight, collapsible, and of low strength. The pitcher is usually glass or plastic and weights at least a couple of pounds. A filled pitcher of soft drink might easily weigh up to 6 pounds.
The devices of McIntosh, Reichenberger and Holcomb have not worked reliably with pitchers. When a pitcher is placed upon the cup rest the pitcher is too large and may fall off of the cup rest, therefore requiring that the pitcher be manually held in place during filling whereupon the automatic shut off feature and structure becomes redundant because there is no productivity increase or labor savings. Then the pitcher is so heavy and bulky that it bends the actuator and probe levers, and/or breaks the actuator switches connected to the levers after which the dispenser will not work. Further its been found that the relatively heavy filled pitcher tends to slide down on the inclined cup rest and again bend the lever, break the actuator switch, or bend the dispensing valve mount. Most dispensers have a stainless steel splash panel behind the cup rest and the dispensing valves. If and when the combination beverage probe and actuator lever is pushed against the splash panel by a pitcher, the automatic fill control is disabled by electrical shunting.
These problems have not yet been addressed or solved, and as of this date there is no known automatic fill control that will work and be commercially satisfactory with pitchers and a variety of cups or glasses.
There are thousands of beverage dispensers presently in use, that require the constant attention and attendance of a foodservice employee during filling of pitchers. This is an undesirable and relatively costly and inefficient usage of employee time. A solution to the problems of filling pitchers and cups needs to be found, and a solution enabling retrofit of existing dispensers so that they will automatically dispense into either cups or pitchers needs to be undertaken.